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Less than .1% of the people in ANY MLM make a profit at it. Now think about that. This number isn’t 1 in 100, it’s 1 in 1000. I’m emphasizing that just in case you missed the decimal point, which many people do when reading figures like that. So you start in an MLM and start recruiting people. If you recruit a downline with 50 people in it, by odds, how many will make any profit at it? At that point, likely, none. Yet you’ve been telling them that they would do well and they’re going to lose money on it — and that’s just going by statistics that have been researched.

The people you recruit, and you, will have better odds at the blackjack table in Vegas. Literally.

Now think about what it was like in AW, and I’m not talking about the motivational crap that drained your money. What did they tell you? Their products are so good they almost sell themselves, right? All you have to do is get people to change their buying habits. Remember those lines? Now think: how many people actually wanted to change their habits? Were people eager to start buying from AW instead of going to their local store?

People don’t like MLMs. They don’t like buying from a company they don’t know much about. They don’t like changing their habits. They know product XYZ cleans what they need it to clean, why should they change. As for buying habits, it sounds nice that you can just order from the web and have it delivered to your door. But let’s look at an xample: A while back I bought 2 printers within a week of each other.
When I went to Office Depot for the 2nd, I took in the info about an add for it on sale at Office Max. Not only did I get $50 knocked off the price, but I got a $50 rebate on the other printer and a free 1 year warranty because that one was on sale at that point. I can’t do that on the web.

Also nothing replaces the experience of going into a store and looking at, touching, and feeling the item you want to buy or the box it’s in.
There’s also something to browsing that is different in person than online. It’s a lot different to go to B&N and browse for a CD or DVD than to do so online. I know I love to be able to order a new Tango or Waltz CD from DanceVision whenever I want and have it show up in my mailbox a few days later, but when I do that, I miss the social experience of being out with people and the tactile experience of looking through the CDs that are available.

A lot of times we think it would be nice to be able to have our groceries delivered, but that doesn’t work. I know AW sells foods, but can they get me my fresh tomatoes, onions, and green peppers when I need them so I can use them for burritos? Can I be sure they’ll get here on the days I need and be fresh? We tend to doubt that because we’ve all had packages that are “in the mail.” We also, when shopping, often need something TODAY and don’t have time to order and wait.
Shopping through such a service requires an advanced planning most people don’t want to have to do.

So when you look over all those points, people don’t like buying from MLMs. They can’t get an item immediately and there are other reasons for shopping in person versus online. I’m just going over all the points to consider on why people don’t change their habits.

Okay, now we can be pretty sure people don’t want to just change their buying behavior, which creates a problem for AW. The other part is people notice something is wrong with AW. People in it have a lifestyle and most people have settled into a lifestyle they like, so they don’t like the idea of becoming part of a group that wants to change everything. That’s one of the big reasons it’s so hard to gain recruits in AW as well as gaining customers.

Think about that. These aren’t reasons just for AW, but for any MLM that wants you to buy from them as well. People are resistant to change and are unlikely to want to join or buy. Most people also see a lot of little things in theses MLMs that scares them off.

There’s one other MLM: The product MLM that has one or two products that you can’t get anywhere else. Examples: Health and beauty companies like Xango and Arbonne. They say, “We offer what nobody else offers.”
People often say, “Oh, they have good products.” At least they will about the beauty products like in Arbonne, but their belief of the good products is based on hearsay and not on fact. The health MLMs will say they have something that cures everything if you just drink it regularly. They have tales about the man with cancer that mysteriously cleared up when he started drinking the juice.

They’ll say the juice is so great but they don’t want to sell it retail because they sell more through an MLM. But consider: if that juice was so good, how well would it do at every Wally World across the country?
How many millions of bottles would they sell every day? Of course they will also say that they don’t want to deal with the FDA. Still, notice how people buy such things for a month or two, then forget it? People don’t really believe the claims. Even if it did cure Uncle Egbert’s cancer, if they’ve tried it and don’t love the taste and find that after a few weeks they don’t notice they’re feeling just fantastic, they stop taking it.

I’ve taken a lot of words to go through the overall MLM strategy: sell products. I wanted to show that there really is no motivation for Joe Consumer to buy from an MLM. They don’t want to. That’s why no MLM has completely saturated the market. If just one of them that had been around for 5 years had a product as good as they claimed, they’d have saturated the market by now because everyone using it would love it and would still be buying from them and they’d have become members and been able to convince their friends and everyone they know that it’s as great as they say.

Heck, if it’s that good, then they’d have started giving away free samples because they would know that once a person starts using the product they’d never stop. If you had a miracle juice that really made one’s health that much better and truly believed in your product, and knew that people, once they started using it, would always use it, then why not give them a free sample? Heck, it’s what drug dealers will do.
Give a few samples, the people get hooked and keep coming back. It’d work with healthy products too, if there were one that were as good as claimed.

Okay, see the overall point: People don’t want to buy from MLMs. There’s on reason to change their habits and there’s no product good enough to make them want to buy. It’s hard to recruit, 999 out of 1,000 people you recruit will fail, even if they try for years, and overall, the public resists them.

Now if there were an MLM like AW *used* to be (and is trying to be again), then it might be worth looking at, but the original design wasn’t a “get rich” plan or offer, it was a way to make some extra money in your spare time. Essentially any MLM that promises wealth needs to generate a high stream of income and the only way to do that is with a dynamite product, which none have, or by making the recruits pay as much money as possible. Guess which one they use?

Long post, but when you think all this over, you’ll wonder how any MLM can succeed. They don’t. They do succeed at funnelling money from low levels of the pyramid to higher ones, but that’s about it.

If you want to do well in terms of income, MLM is NOT the way to go. If that’s not clear by now, then let me know why because there are a LOT of other issues with MLMs that are just as bad.

that makes a living on the line, running a drill press or patching potholes. We also have tremendous respect for those that are willing to roll up their sleeves and do whatever the hell is needed to pay the bills.
That semi-patriotic flag-waving ballyhoo doesn’t wash. You are not some kind of aristocracy that automatically has a right to be in the management or entrepreneurial class by some accident of birth.

We have the freedom to make a living any way we choose, but we have the RESPONSIBILITY to make a living and it is not always an option to just start a business and be Mr. CEO.

You’re playing the MLM game of taking a word with an expected and accepted definition and changing it to your definition. That does NOT work here. I would not suggest trying it again, since repeated use of MLM tactics to manipulate language and a sense of reality are not accepted here and will brand you very quickly as another person with pie-in-the-sky hopes that is looking for a quick and assured path to being rich. You say that is not your way, so make sure you don’t revert to such games.

You talked about working for your 20s for one company, then working under AW for 5 years. The info about the company you worked for than later bought is sketchy. Understand, we get people who come into this group all the time who give us info that is light on the details because there are no details or because things are misstated. You stated you’ve been in this group awhile and you actually joined on March 10, so that’s long enough to have seen how close your comments are to the stuff we get from a lot of people who want to sound legit but have bent their statements to make them sound good.

Basically you told us you had one job where you bought the company and 5 years under AW. There was little in what you wrote to give us a clear idea of whether you actually knew what you were doing in that job where you bought the company or not. From what you say, it sounds like within 90 days of buying that company, you were undercut, which makes me question whether the original owners knew that was on the way and felt you were gullible enough for them to make a last bit of rushed profit before bailing out.

While I value your opinion on Herbalife and MLM’s in general, I’m just not interested in working a “J-O-B” as they call it. The only times in my life when I made any real money was when I owned my own business. It’s not that jobs aren’t viable options for some people, but I’m just not interested in all the politics and corporate backstabbing that goes on. I want to be in as much control as possible, and being the owner is the best way to do that in my opinion.

Again, thanks very much for the input on Herbalife. I do want to start another business. I’m just not sure right now what kind of business to start – whether it’s an MLM or not. I’m just at the research stage at this point I guess.

heck away from all mlm’s, particularly Herbalife. Take your sales skills and put them to work for a J-O-B and you will have great success. MLM’s suck the life out of your family and friends, because a regular mlm salesman cannot make much money, and most people don’t want the over-priced products. Just my 2 cents worth!

I feel the same way too when amway came here in the philippines with all those promises of money free tomorrow… but all of that expectation fall down into pieces. After a year of building the multi level marketing, mind you we have started the multi- level positioning even if the amway business hasnt launch yet in the Philippines. We are all as expectant as if a babe was going to be born. April 1998 when amway finally launch here in our country, expecting commission in return with my very deep marketing member who joined up under me… but you know what happen??? even a single centavo i NEVER get a commission with their marketing plan, having a long line of members under me… so what happen to my hardworking effort to convince people to join amway… NOTHING… ALL HEARTACHES…anyway that is part of my experience in amway here in the philippines..

It blurs the line between your business relationship. It may be that he is totally honest and forthright and all of these issues just fell under Murphy’s umbrella. It could also be that he sees ways to get around paying rent by “fixing up” your property, although that isn’t the arrangement you were looking for.

Find yourself a local and reputable service company (check homeadvisor or angies list for reviewed companies!) and tell your tenant that while you appreciate his help, you are now in a contract with a company and need all repairs to go through them. Be clear: no deductions will be made to his rent for anything (put this in writing) unless YOU pre-approve it. You didn’t hire him as a handyman, you are his landlord and expect to make your fair profit for renting the home to him.

If the issues and un-approved deductions suddenly disappear, then you might consider the odds in favor of him being a not so honest tenant and give him that “out” to leave when you find a suitable replacement.

Above all else – stay positive! It’ll work out. Your tenant odds of good ones 2 out of 3 is not bad at all ?